Reddit mentions of The Meaning of Tradition

These are some of the better books I've accumulated in school:

• An Introduction to the New Testament - Raymond Brown. Exactly what the title says.
  
  
• The Early Church - Henry Chadwick. This is more of a historical overview of the development of the Church, etc.
  
  
• The Shape of Catholic Theology - Aiden Nichols. This book is kind of a dense read. Not gonna lie.
  
  
• At the Origin of the Christian Claim - Luigi Giussani.
  
  
• The Craft of Theology - Avery Dulles.
  
  
• The Theology of the Church - Charles Jornet. - This one is about ecclesiology, or the structure of the Church.
  
  
• Early Christian Fathers -Cyril Richardson. Includes primary sources like letters and homilies.
  
  
• The Trinitarian Crontroversy - William Rusch. Very good history of early heresies, like Arianism and Nestorianism, and how they pushed the Church to develop the Creed.
  
  
• Called to Communion - Joseph Ratzinger.
  
  
• Catholicism: Christ and the Common Destiny of Man - Henri de Lubac. This book is fantastic!
  
  
• The Meaning of Tradition - Yves Congar.
  
  
• Introduction to Moral Theology - Romanus Cessario.
  
  
• The Major Works -Anselm of Canterbury. Nice collection, see especially: Cur Deus Homo.
  
  
• On the Incarnation - Ignatius of Antioch. I LOVED this one!
  
  
• Credo for Today - Joseph Ratzinger. Basically anything by Ratzinger.

> The problem isn't the Conciliar documents. The problem is people who were doing un-Catholic things and then saying that VII somehow justified what they were doing, of which nothing could be further from the truth. Also, it seems like in the post conciliar era, in an effort to be merciful and welcoming, it seems like the Church has forgotten that sometimes, She needs to be a hard ass.

This. Soooo much this.

> A corollary would be "what is tradition?".

The Meaning of Tradition is a work by one of the council fathers of VII, and the most prolific author on the subject of Tradition in all of Church history AFAIK.

The author understands absolutely nothing about what Tradition is, knows he knows nothing about it, but still feels compelled to talk about it.

Instead of condemning it, he might try learning what it is first.

I'd suggest this as a start.

But, anyway, case-in-point:

>How does any of that trump what those same people would understand as their God-given ability to think, to be rational, to use logic?

On the one hand, most of the time the people most loudly asking this are the ones who are using their rationality the least. But, more importantly, this completely misunderstands the very nature of revelation and doctrine and Truth. They are not something ANYONE can just figure out with logic and reason. We have to be told. Which Christ did, to the Apostles, and that has been handed down - guarded by the Holy Spirit. To contradict it because you think you know better is not only contradicting God, but is contradicting God because you think you are so smart that you simply know better. That's arrogance on a suicidal level.

I've not dug into Von Balthasar very much, since the little I've encountered him in coursework has been rather unfulfilling, unlike Ratzinger who I adore.

If you're all in on Balthasar, go for it. But if you're at all open to other Communio scholars, take a look at Henri de Lubac! He's a personal favorite of mine, even though the debate over grace and nature he's most famous for I think he got wrong. His stuff on patristic and medieval exegesis almost makes the Fathers of the Church live again, and he was a major contributor to Dei Verbum (along with Yves Congar, who is the one member of Concilium that you absolutely should read, especially if you enjoy de Lubac, as they pair well together).

Reading list recommendations:
De Lubac's most readable work, impossible not to recommend: https://www.amazon.com/Catholicism-Christ-Common-Destiny-Man/dp/0898702038/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525705139&sr=8-1&keywords=de+lubac+catholicism

De Lubac on spiritual exegesis, the topic where I think he's most brilliant: https://www.amazon.com/Scripture-Tradition-Milestones-Catholic-Theology/dp/0824518713
If you like the first chapter of that one, there's a big ol' study of Origen by him that is pretty important to the last 100 years of patristics scholarship.

Congar is important because of his research into the nature of Tradition. Be sure to check out: https://www.amazon.com/Meaning-Tradition-Yves-Congar/dp/158617021X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525705236&sr=8-1&keywords=congar+tradition
That is a shortened, better organized version of his much longer research work, "Tradition and Traditions", which he was working on when consulting on Dei Verbum.